2Sa 16:1-4 | KD | STEP | Ziba’s faithless conduct towards Mephibosheth. - 2Sa 16:1. When David had gone a little over the height (of the Mount of Olives: הראשׁ points back to ), Mephibosheth’s servant Ziba came to meet him, with a couple of asses saddled, and laden with two hundred loaves, a hundred raisin-cakes, a hundred date or fig-cakes, and a skin of wine. The word קיץ corresponds to the Greek ὀπώρα, as the lxx have rendered it in , , and is used to signify summer fruits, both here and in (Symm.). The early translators rendered it lumps of figs in the present passage (παλάθαι; cf. Ges . Thes . p. 1209). The Septuagint only has ἑκατὸν φοίνικες. The latter is certainly the more correct, as the dried lumps of figs or fig-cakes were called דּבלים ( ); and even at the present day ripe dates, pressed together in lumps like cakes, are used in journeys through the desert, as a satisfying and refreshing food (vid., Winer, bibl. Realwörterbuch , i. 253).

‏ 2 Samuel 16:1-4

Ziba’s faithless conduct towards Mephibosheth. - 2Sa 16:1. When David had gone a little over the height (of the Mount of Olives: הראשׁ points back to 2Sa 15:32), Mephibosheth’s servant Ziba came to meet him, with a couple of asses saddled, and laden with two hundred loaves, a hundred raisin-cakes, a hundred date or fig-cakes, and a skin of wine. The word קיץ corresponds to the Greek ὀπώρα, as the lxx have rendered it in Jer 40:10, Jer 40:12, and is used to signify summer fruits, both here and in Amo 8:1 (Symm.). The early translators rendered it lumps of figs in the present passage (παλάθαι; cf. Ges. Thes. p. 1209). The Septuagint only has ἑκατὸν φοίνικες. The latter is certainly the more correct, as the dried lumps of figs or fig-cakes were called דּבלים (1Sa 25:18); and even at the present day ripe dates, pressed together in lumps like cakes, are used in journeys through the desert, as a satisfying and refreshing food (vid., Winer, bibl. Realwörterbuch, i. 253). 2Sa 16:2

When the king asked him, “What are these for thee?” i.e., what art thou going to do with them? Ziba replied, “The asses are for the king’s family to ride upon (to ride upon in turn), the bread and summer fruits for the young men (the king’s servants) to eat, and the wine for those that are faint in the desert to drink” (see at 2Sa 15:23). The Chethib ולהלחם is evidently a copyist’s error for והלּחם. 2Sa 16:3

To the further question put by the king, “Where is thy lord (Mephibosheth)? Ziba replied, “Behold, he sits (is staying) in Jerusalem; for he said, To-day will the house of Israel restore the kingship (government) of my father.” The “kingship of my father,” inasmuch as the throne would have passed to Jonathan if he had outlived Saul. It is obvious enough, apart altogether from 2Sa 19:25., the Ziba was calumniating his master Mephibosheth, in the hope of getting possession of the lands that he was farming for him. A cripple like Mephibosheth, lame in both feet, who had never put in any claim to the throne before, could not possibly have got the idea now that the people of Israel, who had just chosen Absalom as king, would give the throne of Saul to such a cripple as he was. It is true that Ziba’s calumny was very improbable; nevertheless, in the general confusion of affairs, it was not altogether an inconceivable thing that the oppressed party of Saul might avail themselves of this opportunity to make an attempt to restore the power of that house, which many greatly preferred to that of David, under the name of Mephibosheth. 2Sa 16:4

And in the excited state in which David then was, he was weak enough to give credence to Ziba’s words, and to commit the injustice of promising the calumniator all that belonged to Mephibosheth, - a promise for which he most politely thanked him. השׁתּחויתי, “I bow myself,” equivalent to, I lay myself at thy feet. “May I find favour in the eyes of my lord the king!” i.e., may the king grant me his favour (vid., 1Sa 1:18).